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Makes sense to me.  It is congruent with admonitions not to use electrolytes that contain bicarbonite.  The problem is it is impossible to supplement chloride ions without also supplimenting cat ions at the same time.  Choices here are rather limited: Na, K, Ca, Mg, or H.  Now we can't feed H because this is HCl (hydrochloric acid) and would be bad for the stomach.  CaCl2 is quite hygroscopic and would make a mess of the powdered electrolytes.  I can't remember about MgCl2, but I'd bet that feeding bunches of that is rather of a problem also.

 

We also learned last week that feeding to much NaCl or KCl is also bad.

 

I guess I don't see anything here that would guide me in proper race day practices.

 

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Excess electrolytes are easily handled every day by the horse **if** water intake is liberal and unlimited. That does not apply to race day conditions. If you preload the demands for the first hour or so, before the horse starts losing fluid, and if salt intake has been liberal before race day so that the horse was drinking freely, you can tailor your in-ride supplementation to make it match water consumption in a way that keeps the concentration of Elytes in a range that avoids overload relative to water intake.

 

Absolutely correct that the choice of chloride sources is limited but this is where what the horse is eating on race day can, and should, be considered in making your choices.  Elytes formulated to match sweat can be used for that component of needs. The Na, K and Cl losses in sweat have been very well described. The race day diet is where you have some leeway to be creative.  Grains, brans, seed meals all have wiggle room for Ca or Mg chloride salts.

 

Give me a sample race day diet and let's see how it plays out.

 

Eleanor

-- 
Eleanor M. Kellon, V.M.D.
Equine Nutritional Solutions
58 Maple Farm Road
Ephrata, PA 17522